STARFLEET-L: The Unofficial Mailing List of STARFLEET ----------------------------------------------------- Frequently Asked Questions 6.4 2007.12.31 AMWD The STARFLEET-L mailing list is an unofficial mailing list that allows members of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association easily exchange ideas and information about issues affecting STARFLEET and STARFLEET members. STARFLEET-L does not operate under the authority of STARFLEET or its leadership, but under the authority of the list owner and moderators. The current STARFLEET-L ListFAQ is always available on the STARFLEET web site at http://www.ssnexus.org/ListFAQ.txt. A. Subscription instructions B. Contact information C. Archives and FAQ D. Purpose E. Digests F. Announcements G. How to post H. To post or not to post I. Replies, followups, quoting J. Acronyms and emoticons K. When things go wrong L. Multiple e-mail addresses M. Other sources of info N. E-mail directory O. What not to do P. What did we miss? Q. Credits A. SUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS ---------------------------- There are two ways to handle your subscription to STARFLEET-L. The first method is via the web. Most people file this preferable. You can subscribe, unsubscribe, set digest, and all sorts of other things here. http://fleetlist.org/mailman/listinfo/starfleet-l_fleetlist.org Now, for folks who really want or need to use an email interface, here's how you go about it: To subscribe to STARFLEET-L: * Write starfleet-l-request@fleetlist.org a message whose BODY says SUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe from STARFLEET-L: * Write starfleet-l-request@fleetlist.org a message whose BODY says UNSUBSCRIBE If you have any problems subbing or unsubbing, please email kryssik@gmail.com NOTE: Folks are having trouble unsubbing from the list; just send Chrissy an email with the email you want unsubbed and she'll make sure it gets done. B. CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------------- The STARFLEET-L list owner is Chrissy Killian Your first contact for most issues or questions regarding the list should be: * Senior Moderator will be announced If you have questions or comments about subscriptions or the operation of the list, please contact Chrissy. C. ARCHIVES & FAQ ------------------- Digests of the STARFLEET-L mailing list are available on the list server site at http://fleetlist.org/mailman/private/starfleet-l_fleetlist.org. These mailing list archives are maintained on a space-available basis and are not guaranteed to be there if you go looking for them. The current STARFLEET-L ListFAQ is always available at http://www.ssnexus.org/ListFAQ.txt D. PURPOSE ---------- The STARFLEET-L mailing list is an *unofficial* mailing list that allows members of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association to more easily exchange ideas and information about issues affecting STARFLEET and STARFLEET members. STARFLEET-L does not operate under the authority of STARFLEET or its leadership, but under the authority of the list owner and moderators. Announcements of upcoming chapter or region events are absolutely welcome, as well as discussion about issues facing chapters, regions, or individual members. Messages of thanks or praise are appreciated and messages of constructive criticism will often be welcomed by individuals or STARFLEET departments when e-mailed directly. The authority of the list owner and moderators on STARFLEET-L is absolute; the list is not a democracy. You are encouraged to adhere to the guidelines set forth in this FAQ and to requests made by the moderators on the list itself. The right to free speech guaranteed within the United States by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifies that the Federal government will not interfere with your right to express yourself. It does *not* apply to private individuals or organizations, and most assuredly does not apply to STARFLEET-L. You are welcome to express your disagreement with this position on another forum, if you choose, but not on STARFLEET-L. In other words, you are free to start your own list. E. DIGESTS ---------- The STARFLEET-L digest version gives you the option of receiving a batch of STARFLEET-L posts as a single message once the collected digest has reached a certain size, rather than individually. This approach means there might be more than one digest on a given day if the traffic is heavy, or there may be a couple of days between digests if traffic is light. To get the digest version of the list, simply follow the subscription instructions above, and answer "Yes" when asked if you'd like to receive mail batched in a daily digest. F. ANNOUNCEMENTS ---------------- The STARFLEET Announcements list is a separate, moderated mailing list offering news and information of value to most STARFLEET members. It's relatively low-traffic, and is perfect for anyone who wishes to keep up to date but would rather not be on STARFLEET-L. To subscribe to the STARFLEET Announcements list: If you have any questions about the Announcements List, write to listowner and moderator at if you have any questions. G. HOW TO POST -------------- To post a message to STARFLEET-L: * send e-mail to STARFLEET-L@FLEETLIST.ORG That's the short form. Your entire header (including, for example, To, CC, Subject, and Organization lines) must not be longer than 1,024 characters, to comply with a restriction imposed by the mailing list software we're using. In general, your Subject line should be brief but descriptive. A subject line such as "Question" or "List post" or "Announcement" or "Important!" isn't very useful. Instead, use a descriptive subject such as "How tall is Ro Laren?" or "Region 7 Conference this November." So we know who's writing a message to the list, please sign each post to STARFLEET-L with, at a minimum, your name and e-mail address. Keep your signature block (sig block) to around five or six lines. If you are posting a message that expresses congratulations, condolences, get-well wishes, or requests for prayers or good luck, please make sure you provide the private e-mail address of the individual or group affected, or promise to pass along any replies that are sent to you privately. Such messages are wonderful, but followups to these messages should be in the form of private replies, not list posts. If you're posting a followup message to a STARFLEET-L post, make sure your e-mail software is sending the message where you expect it to go. If your To: or CC: lines contain multiple copies of the STARFLEET-L address, take out all but one. If your reply is addressed to lists other than STARFLEET-L, make sure you're entitled to post to them (ie, you are subbed to the lists). This is a closed list, so you can only post from the e-mail address at which you're subscribed. Posts from any other address will bounce. Please avoid using styled text or HTML encoded text. Post your message as plain text e-mail. If you don't know how to turn off styled text in your mail client, please ask us for help. We have FAQs available upon request for a variety of popular mail clients. File attachments are absolutely forbidden on STARFLEET-L. No ifs ands or buts. Offer to send a file to those who reply privately that they'd like a copy, but files are not to be sent to the list. This includes "business card" files sent along automatically by some mail clients. Turn them off. Turn them all off! H. TO POST OR NOT TO POST ------------------------- Think before you post to the list. You are about to share your words with hundreds of people. If you're mad when you write your message, hold onto it for a few hours before posting, and then look at it again. You may discover you need to reword it... or just delete it unsent. See the section on "What not to do" before posting, to make sure you are not violating any of the list's rules with your message. I. REPLIES, FOLLOWUPS, QUOTING ------------------------------ Think before you post a followup message. Does the list need to see your reply, or should it go only to the one person who posted the message to which you're replying? Followup messages of condolences, congratulations, thanks, get-well wishes, and the like should always be sent privately. Don't send "Hear, hear!" messages, "I agree!" messages, "Me too!" messages, or "USS Whatever dims its running lights in sympathy" messages to STARFLEET-L. If you decide to send a private reply, please carefully check to make sure your message is addressed only to that person's private e-mail address, not to the list. You'd think it would be easy to keep an eye on this, but far too often, we see messages erroneously sent back to the list when the sender clearly meant them to be private. Avoid embarassment - check those headers! If you're going to send a followup post to the list, quote the message to which you're replying, but do so sparingly. It's worth quoting four or five lines of the previous message to provide context, but remember that your fellow subscribers have seen the previous message, so you don't need to quote much. Don't quote the previous post in its entirety, even if your e-mail software makes it awfully convenient to do just that. It's easy enough to snip off the excess. Carefully attribute the quote to the person who wrote it. It's easy to get confused. J. ACRONYMS AND EMOTICONS ------------------------- Frequent communicators on the Internet have developed a set of conventions for shorthand in the form of acronyms expressing a variety of meanings, and "emoticons" (also known as "smileys") to convey emotion. Many acronyms you'll see on STARFLEET-L are common in offline usage, such as RSVP (repondez, s'il vous plait, a French phrase asking for a response, usually used to request an answer to an invitation) or ASAP (as soon as possible). Most are unique to the Internet, such as YMMV (your mileage may vary; you might feel otherwise), LOL (laughing out loud), IMHO (in my humble opinion), FWIW (for what it's worth), AFAIK (as far as I know), and RTFM (read the darn manual, a suggestion that the information you seek is already at your fingertips). Most of the emoticons are readily interpreted if you tilt your head. The symbol :-) is a smiley face tilted to the left. Variants include the noseless smiley :) and its lefty counterpart (: (thanks, Gord) as well as symbols for other emotions, such as :-( or :-\. K WHEN THINGS GO WRONG ----------------------- If you believe there is something wrong with the STARFLEET-L mailing list, DO NOT under any circumstances post a message to the list expressing your concern. If there is actually something wrong, your post may exacerbate the problem, and at best will be ineffective at solving it. You should instead attempt to contact the list's administration, whose direct e-mail addresses are available in the section "Contact information." If there's nothing wrong with the mailing list, but you have a complaint about something that someone has posted, please direct your comments to the list moderators. Most of STARFLEET-L's moderation activity goes on behind the scenes, via private messages among the moderators and those who've done something wrong. It's possible that the moderators have already dealt with the issue you feel is worth a complaint, but it's also possible that we haven't, so your comments, worded politely and in private, are always welcome. Please unsubscribe from STARFLEET-L if you know in advance that your e-mail address is going to become unreachable, either permanently, or for a short period of time. If messages to you bounce repeatedly, you may be unsubscribed from the list without notice. Make sure your mailbox doesn't get too full, you don't turn on "vacation" autoresponders, etc. L. MULTIPLE E-MAIL ADDRESSES ---------------------------- If you might want to post to STARFLEET-L from multiple addresses, please subscribe all of them to the list individually. At the moment, we have no mechanism for allowing you to post from an address that is not subscribed to the list. (You can post from an address that's subscribed to the digest, rather than the regular list, if that's more convenient.) M. OTHER STARFLEET SOURCES OF INFO ---------------------------------- Information about most aspects of STARFLEET may be found at the STARFLEET web site: * http://www.sfi.org/ STARFLEET forms and documents, and various other items of interest are available at the STARFLEET documents site: * http://documents.sfi.org/ N. E-MAIL DIRECTORY ------------------- A directory of STARFLEET members who are online, and the various ways of communicating with them, is maintained by Mike Dugas. * http://directory.sfi.org * Mike Dugas WHAT NOT TO DO ----------------- Don't worry, there's a nearly infinite variety of GOOD ways to express yourself on STARFLEET-L. The following "don'ts" are of varying degrees of severity, but refraining from committing any of them will help to keep you on the list moderators' good side. If you have any questions, or aren't sure whether something you're about to post violates the guidelines, by all means ask first. Whoever coined the phrase, "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission," never met the STARFLEET-L list moderators or list owner. :) Note that the following isn't an exhaustive list of rules. Please use your best judgement and try to behave maturely. * No flames or other acts that disrupt the even flow of discussion on the list. We expect you to act like adults when posting here. Feel free to express disagreement with someone's position by arguing your position. Personal attacks are not welcome. * No forwarding private mail. Messages sent to you privately are not to be shared with the list without the permission of the author. The same applies for messages from limited-access mailing lists. Always seek permission first. * No forwarding messages to the list for non-subscribers. Some folks aren't subscribed because they aren't allowed to post to STARFLEET-L. If someone asks you to share their thoughts with the list, ask them to contact a list moderator. We'll post their message for them if we think it's appropriate. * No posting copyrighted material without permission. This includes newspaper articles, articles or other material from web sites, wire service material, etc. If you ask, you may find that the newspaper or writer is happy to have you share the material. Ask. * No excessive quoting. Quote four or five lines of the post you're replying to. If you have more than one point to answer, then of course you may quote the relevant lines for that point also. Do NOT quote the previous post in full, either at the beginning or end of your post. We've already seen it. * No unmarked spoilers. Provide spoiler warnings in subject line (*SPOILER*), and 20 lines of space before your text, if your post contains info that could be considered a spoiler. See the ListFAQ for details. * No chain letters. A chain letter is a message that urges you to pass it along to others. Chain petitions, virus warnings, snowballs, and other messages that urge you to pass them to all your friends are forbidden. * No virus warnings. If you receive an e-mail message warning you of a dastardly virus or prank that everyone should know about, do yourself (and us) a favor and DON'T forward it to STARFLEET-L. Odds are very good it's a hoax, an urban legend, or otherwise bogus. If you get something that seems real please pass it on to one of the STARFLEET-L list moderators for consideration. We'll post it if it seems appropriate. * No test messages. The listadmins will test the list if it is necessary. If you feel there's a problem, please let us know via private e-mail. Sending a message to with the word "options" in the body will give you some various options, and will tell you whether your E-Mail address is subscribed to the list. * No advertising or sales pitches, whether to promote something that would benefit you, a friend, or an unrelated company. We make exceptions for chapter fundraisers and the like, but please ask for permission before posting such messages. * No "me too" posts. Don't bother posting a reply to the list unless you have something to add to the discussion. If you'd also like the information someone has requested on the list, send a private note to that person asking him or her to share the results of his or her request. * Avoid personal paging. If you've misplaced someone's e-mail address, or mail is bouncing, or you'd like to get in touch with a list subscriber, there are better ways to do it than wasting everyone's time simultaneously. Try http://www.sfi.org/directory/. * Limit signature blocks to six lines, including all information, decorations, quotations, and blank lines. * Don't post replies to the list when your message is meant for just the original poster. Check and recheck those headers; save yourself any potential embarrassment. * Please do not use this list as if it were eBay 'fleet-style. Just post that you have things for sale but do NOT publish the whole list. Just ask people to write you privately. * No attached files. No styled text. No HTML encoding. Simple, eh? Of course it is! :) For those of you who have trouble with stylized text, here's a URL that explains how to send plain text with whatever email client you are using: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html O. WHAT DID WE MISS? -------------------- This document isn't perfect, and as it has evolved before, it will evolve again. Please send comments or suggestions to the List Owner, Chrissy Killian, at . P. CREDITS ---------- This ListFAQ is maintained by Chrissy Killian who thanks Allyson M. W. Dyar for her work for the last two years as list moderator and owner. Allyson had thanked Dave Blaser most excellent work as list moderator under Greg Trotter. This FAQ was adapted from prior List Owner Mark H. Anbinder, but like most documents of any length, contains the work of many. Special thanks to Gordon Goldberg who started up the first STARFLEET mailing list back in 1993, and to the "retired" List Mommy, Lisa Berkenbilt, who came to the rescue with the second list. Thanks also to Kurt Roithinger, a past list owner; to list moderator emeritus Allyson Dyar (who was back again for a while); and to past deputy list moderator Donna Friesen, all of whom have helped this document to evolve and best reflect the needs of the list and its subscribers. Thanks as well to the many list subscribers who've offered suggestions, and even to those whose indiscretions and blunders have brought to light new issues we've had to address. You know who you are. :-) http://www.ssnexus.org/ListFAQ.txt